Product Details

• Actors: Jimmy Tsai, Roger Fan, Shelley Malil, Alexander Agate, Percival Arcibal
• Directors: Jessica Yu
• Writers: Jimmy Tsai, Jessica Yu
• Producers: Anne Clements, Jeffrey Gou, Joan Huang
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 6, 2009
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001HB1K00
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,151 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ping Pong Playa" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa is that rare film unlikely to appeal to a director's usual fan base. Best known as a documentary filmmaker, her first feature targets a completely different audience. In it, co-writer/production accountant Jimmy Tsai plays Christopher "C-dub" Wang, a Los Angeles-based, basketball-obsessed, Chinese-American slacker. Chris shares his enthusiasm for urban culture with African-American best friend J.P. Money (Khary Payton). J.P., in turn, has been taking Chinese-language lessons, so the cultural exchange doesn't just run one way. Unfortunately for Chris, his family lives for ping-pong, a pursuit in which he has little interest. When his mother (Elizabeth Sung, The Joy Luck Club) and brother, Michael (Roger Fan, Better Luck Tomorrow), are injured in a minor traffic accident, however, they recruit him to help run their supply store and to teach table tennis at the local community center. Since Chris has just lost a gig hawking cell phones at the mall, he's in no position to decline. Along with some Asian-American youngsters, both Chinese and East Asian, who hunger for a cool role model, Chris changes from the world's laziest human being into something that almost resembles a respectable member of society. With its antic humor and underage hijinks, Yu's self-proclaimed popcorn comedy offers more mainstream appeal than her inventive documentaries In the Realms of the Unreal and Protagonist (she won the Oscar for non-fiction short Breathing Lessons). If the loud-mouthed Chris can be fairly off-putting at first, her affectionate representation of his multicultural world rings true. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

You'll have a ball with this heartwarming, hilarious comedy! Christopher "C-dub" Wang is a Chinese-American gangsta-rapper wannabe with outrageous, and unlikely, dreams of becoming a pro basketball star. When his ping pong champion brother gets hurt, it's up to C-dub to pick up the paddle and save the family business. But when he's facing off against a devious rival player in the ping pong tournament of the year, will C-dub be up to the challenge? With some surprising help from an unusual group of kids, anything could happen!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funniest Movie I've Seen in Ages, December 17, 2008

By	V. K. Lin (Eugene, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First saw this at the Eugene DisOrient Asian Film Festival over a year ago. Funniest movie I've seen in ages. Minimal spoilers below...

This is the story of a younger son in a Chinese-American family who is struggling with his identity and his cultural responsibility. His elder brother is a ping pong champion, and the entire family's finances are contingent on the reputation of the family and their performance at a local ping pong tournament. You can figure out the rest from there.

But this charming, hilarious, incredibly well-thought out movie by relative movie unknowns has more class, humor, and intelligence than most mainstream Hollywood comedies I've seen. The vast majority of the humor is applicable to all races, all cultures, all walks of life... there are a few jokes and intimations specific to the Asian-American community... but I loved this movie so much I pre-ordered the DVD, feeling grateful that it actually made it out of it's film festival beginnings (into limited more mainstream release, but not where I live), onto DVD.

It's based on the classic athletic competition motif. The oppressive, aggressive professional athlete coming to take over small local town ping pong hero. Family obligation. Cultural expectations. Identity/social self-exploration/finding. Touching characters with some depth.

The humor is classy, clever, witty. It is not very subtle, just outright fun. Language is pretty clean for a comedy, but still has quite a bit of profanity (teenage locker room talk) that is partially obscured by the sound of a bouncing ball or ping pong paddle hit or similar as a sort of tongue-in-cheek (ha, that's a pun!) censor. Depending on your sensitivity to this sort of thing, appropriate for teens (13-14+), but prepare to cover the ears of your child if younger. Subject material is otherwise pretty clean, and appropriate for even younger than teenaged kids.

It's a great film, IMO.

-vk

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a hilarious movie!, May 9, 2009

By	Gloria - See all my reviews

I actually just saw this film at UC Davis' Asian American Association Film Festival tonight and had to immediately order the dvd online. It's that good! This movie is unbelievably hilarious and I found it really refreshing to watch a film that brings Asian stereotypes to light while making it funny. While a lot of the jokes are specific to Asian-Americans, I think anyone can appreciate the humor overall. Jimmy Tsai also did a Q&A after tonight's showing of this movie and was just awesome to talk to. So basically, it's a really great movie! Loved it!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS MOVIE RAWCKED!, February 2, 2009

By	Maimounah Masudi "live happy and strong" (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I saw this movie at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF)in March 2008. I thought it was absolutely hilarious! I was too shy to go down the aisle and meet Jimmy Tsai after the movie. It was way cool that they did a Q & A session after the movie for the audience members which is viewable on [...], just type in "ping pong playa".

As soon as the dvd came out I bought it and shared it with family and friends. Now those friends are going to buy a copy of their own. I purchased some of Jimmy's clothing from his company at venomsportswear.com they look way awesome!Way to go Jimmy!